I know one Xero poster did not mean it as an insult, but saying Xero pays for itself is really an insult (continued).

You should pay far lower rates for Xero professional accounting help than you would pay for such help with other accounting programs. That is because Xero makes it easy to use professional help 24/7/365, instead of concentrating it during our busy (premium priced) tax season (when it takes longer to finish, partly because we make more mistakes). Xero even more than pays for itself by cutting the cost and time it takes you to use accountants, since you and your accountants do not exchange computer files or bank statements (except for non e-pay payees).

Xero even should more than pay for itself because Xero makes it easy for you to get some or all your professional accounting help from anywhere in the world. It may be too much trouble for many small businesses to tap into this less inexpensive remote help, but it is certainly no trouble for small business accountants to do so, sharply cutting their costs and your costs.

Xero also more than pays for itself because you can do all this with absolutely no risk. I had to overcome many privacy, safety and reliability concerns to become #2 for Xero clients in the U.S. This made me thoroughly review all of the inherent security and reliability in Xero. I talk or write about the inherent near absolute safety of the Xero read-only feeds every day. I also constantly address the inherent safety and reliability of the professionally staffed multiple redundant computer, power and internet systems that Xero uses, at multiple remote secure locations, with continuous backup. I then contrast this with the inherent unprofessional, insecure, unreliable computer systems that clients use, with inadequate backup. This made me bog about the 15 reasons why QuickBooks is the worst place for your data.

This also made me conclude that Xero data was inherently far more accurate than the data in almost all other accounting systems. That is because Xero is among the very few to automatically download all bank and financial institution transactions AND to automatically classify such transactions. Automatic account classification is sure to provide more consistent data than separately deciding where each entry goes. Therefore, I now believe that CPAs are guilty of malpractice if they do not check QuickBooks or other accounting data with automatic programs like Xero. That is why I blogged that I do not care if you ever use Xero. I said this because I felt that I had to use Xero, even if clients never used it.